Originally Posted by OvertheUnder:
“As an avid record collector, I have a simple but effective sound system to play my Vinyl on a mid range deck but initially found very little information on how to set up a decent system with the right and appropriate audio equipment. It took me far too long and money to work out what did and didn't work.
I wished there was a easier way to collate all the information together and buy the right equipment. As a potential business idea would a website that supplied said information and a way to purchase the equipment be useful?
So it's basically a website to buy all things vinyl related including the vinyl themselves...
Yay or Nay?”
The web is stuffed to the gunnels with forums offering advice on all manner of Hi-Fi; this includes some very active sites either partly or almost wholly dedicated to all things vinyl. Even this very site has a sub-forum for TV and Home Entertainment Technology,. Google finds these sites easily enough, so it's a little puzzling that it took you "
a long time and a lot of money to get your system sorted.
Should the question then should be focused on searching rather than making a site?
i.e. Why is it that you had a hard time finding information when a simple Google enquiry based on the words "
vinyl record player advice" brings up 43.8 million(!) hits and 80% of the first page alone include beginners guides?
Making a site is a great idea if a) you're the first, or b) you're doing something unique that has value, or c) people can find your site the easiest in a search
"a" has already been done. "b" and "c" are still possibilities though "c" can be rather expensive to achieve.
Something unique is perhaps the best angle. The next question then is about customers:
1) Are there enough people interested in buying vinyl that are happy to come to a dedicated site that sells gear and media rather than go in to a local Hi-Fi shop?
2) If you are a one-stop shop then you have to be able to cater to those seeking the rare as well as the common? So, how do you offer customers access to all the records ever made?
3) After you've spent all the time putting this together, what's to stop someone taking your advice and then buying elsewhere either more conveniently locally, or online at lower prices? In short then, the commercial question is
Why will they complete a sale with you rather than elsewhere? This is key to your whole funding model.
I'm sure there's no shortage of people who can't work a search engine, or just find the whole thing too overwhelming. I do wonder though how many of these high maintenance prospects have the commitment to complete the process that results in putting money in your till.